The next two paintings in my flower series play more on layers. These layers show in the textures by using gel mediums and in the overlays with the colors.

Often when I paint, I focus on highlights first, and I gradually darken and add deep values to my canvas. The blue crocuses were done much in reverse, and I started with deep colors and darn grays first. This really brought out the highlights in the crocus petals.

In the orchids, I went back to the Grisaille tehnique that I used a few years ago in my reef painting. I thought first about the image entirely in black and white, then I went back and added glazes over the harsh values to soften the distinction between values, add cohesion to the petals, and add color where necessary.

My latest painting endeavor has been to experiment with some new techniques. I'm starting to play around with gel mediums and texture paste in and under my paints. I love the addition of textures to my work, although I am finding the application with a palette knife more difficult than I anticipated. I do love the new challenge with smoothly applying my edges and raising different levels in the texture.

With these new techniques, I was inspired to work with another series of florals. I didn't pair these down to a specific type, because I want to experiment with a variety of subjects.

I feel like I've barely written lately! Although I haven't been writing as much, I'm definitely working on new projects. I have a ton of knit and crochet projects coming up in preparation for fall and winter, and I have been starting several other projects that have eaten some of my writing time.

"Bass Pairs" is inspired by many years of swimming, fishing, and eventually scuba diving with these wonderful creatures. While these don't school quite like sunfish or some other fish do, I can always recall seeing these in pairs around the edges of weedbeds, fallen trees, or manmade structures.

I remember seeing these on some of my last dives at the cabin, and I feel really fortunate to put them on canvas. They are sich a pretty fish, and found in so many places around the country.

This painting was inspired by long evenings watching the sunset over the many different lakes in Minnesota. The calm water and the reflections of the setting sun have always been captivating for me to witness. The play on the blues and oranges among the clouds is how I will always visualize sunsets at the cabin.

The sailboat is still the main feature of the painting, and it grounds the image well reminding me of seeing these around the Minneapolis chain of lakes. I love the softness and the hint of whimsy it gives to the piece. It provided the perfect subject to really experiment with the reflective quality of the water and play with the deep shadows and highlights of sunset.

For the past several weeks, I've been working on a new painting based on a unique perspective of St. Paul, Minnesota. There is a strange phenomenon on Highway 61 on the southeast end of town: the downtown skyline appears to fit between the Cathedral and the Capitol building. This beautiful scene is a fleeting moment on Highway 61, and I wanted tried to capture the essence of it.

I started this as a challenge from my brother, who wanted an abstracted version of this image. I knew it would be hard to think of it literally, since it was mostly the tops of buildings in a valley in front of the hill connecting the Cathedral and the Capitol. My main reference materials for the concepts were some skyline pictures of the perspective from the highway and a lot of maps of St. Paul. I looked at an overall map of the city to really understand how the major pieces fit together from my perspective. I used topography maps to understand how to eliminate the hill between Highway 61 and downtown, essentially looking through the St. Paul's west side. The biggest challenge way laying out the bridges coming over the river between the west side and downtown.

Once I got the perspective how I liked, I started to play with color. Since this was meant to be an abstract forced perspective, I started with nearly all primary colors in establishing the forms of my buildings. This provided a very bright base for me to work with, and it immediately removed the sense of realism from my mind. By focusing on the forms and bringing out certain elements of downtown, I was really able to add some life with more of the grays and browns of the city. I wanted to add some life and a sense of pop back to this canvas, so I brought in some inks to add back contours on my structures. The whole piece transformed to something completely different. I was able to finish it after adding in some last details, toning down some of the deeper ink areas, and adding highlights.

These little fish were inspired by the bountiful numbers found in my grandparents' lake. While scuba diving with these little sunfish, we'd be followed by packs that numbered near the hundreds on the edges of the weed beds. On one of my last dives there, one of these fish implanted itself in my mind.

I was surprised by two things with that single fish: it was humongous, and it was one of the most beautiful fish I'd ever seen. In the shallow water, its scales seemed to glow with metallic blues and golds, and the tips of its fins were streaked in silvery-white. It was captivating. I knew during that dive that I would have to try to capture a few of these fish in canvas.

Immediately after getting home, I started with concept sketches. I eagerly and excitedly painted these to keep preserve these freshwater beauties. I experimented over several days with layering colors into this painting for the weedbed and tried to integrate some of the same colors into the fish scales.

To paint the fish, I really wanted to capture the blues in the scales and offset these against their golden hues. While I love painting with acrylics, I used added layers into this painting with watercolors as well to really help add to the underwater feel. The blend between the acrylic and the watercolor paints adds such a wonderful effect to the canvas by blending with each layer.

This painting was a self-commission of sorts; I painted it as a wedding gift for my husband's cousin. It's clear through almost any platform online or in person that she has a love for elephants. So, while I intended on painting them something underwater (they do scuba dive, after all) I thought this would be a better fit.

I definitely prefer painting something I've seen in its natural habitat. There is nothing like the majesty of seeing African elephants in their home. I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity to take a study abroad course in South Africa and Lesotho. I really used that experience to influence how I painted this piece, and I really tried to capture the majesty of these amazing animals.

This dyptic has been an idea in my mind for several years. It started with mentally picturing these above twin beds in one of the bedrooms in my mom's house. Though odd, that cornel of inspiration never quite left, and I've wanted to paint the skyline in this style for a very long time.

I started with the basic idea of displaying our two local downtown centers side by side. But there was so much more that I wanted to show about our cities: the fantastic green space, the lakes and the river, and the huge variation in architecture.

I started by painting St. Paul: the older of our two cities. I wanted to really capture the downtown center from the East, and the view from Mound Park was the perfect landing place. The bridges over the Mississippi River, and 1st Bank, Wells Fargo, and Galtier Plaza shoot up above the other building from this view and really show the depthof architecture. I loved adding in some of the historic brownstones along the lowertown view of the river. From here, the only thing really missing is the new Lowertown CHS Field.

Minneapolis was my next project, and I wanted to highlight it from within the park surrounding Lake Calhoun. This area is so dynamic and welcoming that it boasts a great afternoon adventure any time of year. After painting the warm earthy tones in St. Paul, I was surprised by the cool grays and blues in the young buildings such as the IDS Center in Minneapolis. I adored feeling like I was able to capture the character of these spaces through their valuable park spaces.

I painted this particular piece after my Art Crawl products went missing. I find an odd kind of peace in sharks, and I would love to get the opportunity to dive with hammerheads someday.

I've been contemplating painting sharks for a long time, but I was having trouble really deciding how to do one, what species, how to accentuate the colors of their skin... But when it came around the other night I was simply inspired.

This painting is highly inspired by the captivating beauty of swans. It's been a while since I did an underwater painting, and I wanted to get back to painting these. The choice to paint a swan is near to my heart, as swans not only have such strong spirited symbolism of love, but these are also part of my namesake.

I still love the way "Kingfisher Dive" was produced, so I tried to implement similar techniques in creating this piece with the background. I started with painting the body of the swan and used a mix of pure black and white. I love the way the shadows play off of the long neck of the swan, and I loved being able to convey more depth under the surface of the water.